A groundbreaking discussion that could have China investing billions of dollars to remove bottlenecks at West Coast ports will take place today at the San Francisco Hilton.

A group called the West Coast Corridor Coalition is exploring ways to address bottlenecks with the road and trucking infrastructure to ports in the states of Washington, Oregon and California.

While the effort stands to benefit the Port of Oakland, port officials weren’t aware of it, a port spokeswoman said.

China’s possible involvement in the West Coast Corridor Coalition has been under discussion since the beginning of the year between high-level officials in California, Oregon, Washington state and Southern China.

Glenn Pascall, coordinator of the federally funded Coalition, said that corridor coalitions coordinate government infrastructure projects across the country. The West Coast Coalition runs from Alaska to the border of Mexico.

The Chinese government and businesses involved in trade in China and its territories have been concerned about the increasing bottleneck at West Coast ports, Pascall said. The problem has been particularly acute at the nation’s two busiest container ports — Los Angeles and Long Beach.

“Last year China bought $175 billion in U.S. treasury bills, partly as an investment and partly to maintain the robustness of the U.S. economy,” Pascall said. “The logic is if they’re going to spend that kind of money in financial instruments, why can’t they spend $50 billion over the next four years in ports, highways and railroads?”

To date, the American side has drafted principles by which such investments can be made and submitted them to its southern Chinese counterparts.

“We got a good reaction from Hong Kong and Guangdong, a strong agreement on principles,” Pascall said.

He noted that Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire recently returned from a trip to China in which she proposed China’s direct investment in Washington business. Such a direct investment in business also could be embraced by the Coalition, he said.

But it seems the most urgent order of business is port and road infrastructure. In the last decade, the Port of Oakland has spent more than $1 billion improving its infrastructure, which includes expanding maritime terminals and building a new rail yard.

“We are strapped for funding on capital projects. The Port of Oakland has huge challenges getting cargo out of the port,” Pascall said.

Not only does this concern the government of China and its territories, but private enterprise there also are looking to have a role in addressing the problem. Pascall said that private Hong Kong trading groups have invested in the port in Ensenada, Mexico.

“If container cargo doubles or triples by 2030, and it looks as though it will, you can’t have too many places to land,” Pascall said.

The Coalition’s efforts to improve port access could lead to greatly expanded trade to the West Coast, predicted Wang Yongpu, the deputy commercial consul for the China General Consulate in San Francisco.

Besides Pascall, the West Coast Corridor Coalition is headed by Jeff Brown of the California state Senate Office of Research; Al King, a former Oregon legislator; and Jin Lan, of the Vancouver consulting firm Octaxias.

Meanwhile, a trade meeting in San Francisco going on simultaneously with the Corridor discussion is drawing numerous dignitaries and business executives from China’s Pearl River Delta region.

On the southern end of China’s mainland, Guangdong Province has always been a robust trading partner of the Bay Area as has the former British protectorate of Hong Kong. Along with Macau, these regions together present a juggernaut of industrial might and a key manufacturing center. In 2004 Guangdong’s gross domestic product rose 14.2 percent to $194 billion over that of 2003, almost one-ninth of China’s national total.

Their shipping lanes include 141 open ports connected to more than 1,100 ports in more than 130 countries and regions.

Among the dignitaries present will be Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong Province. Whereas in the past, trade meetings included China’s politicians and bureaucrats, this will be the first time so many business executives of importance are coming to California, Wang said.

Dozens of Chinese territories and enterprises will be represented. Projects looking for investment number 150 and span every interest from environmental protection and agriculture to electronics, building materials, textiles, logistics and zoos.